RIDERS by Veronica Rossi // ARC Review (TorTeen)

RIDERS // Veronica Rossi
ARC via Publisher (TorTeen)
Feb. 16, 2016
Goodreads // Amazon

For eighteen-year-old Gideon Blake, nothing but death can keep him from achieving his goal of becoming a U.S. Army Ranger. As it turns out, it does.

Recovering from the accident that most definitely killed him, Gideon finds himself with strange new powers and a bizarre cuff he can't remove. His death has brought to life his real destiny. He has become War, one of the legendary four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Over the coming weeks, he and the other horsemen--Conquest, Famine, and Death--are brought together by a beautiful but frustratingly secretive girl to help save humanity from an ancient evil on the emergence.

They fail.

Now--bound, bloodied, and drugged--Gideon is interrogated by the authorities about his role in a battle that has become an international incident. If he stands any chance of saving his friends and the girl he's fallen for--not to mention all of humankind--he needs to convince the skeptical government officials the world is in imminent danger.

But will anyone believe him?

Okay, y’all. Picture this.

Picture out world: green trees in the spring time and wild fires in late summer. Now picture a lack of green and whole heck of a lot of fire. Picture out world consumed by fire. Consumed by things less than human eating goodness. Do you see the apocalypse?

Now, picture Horsemen. NO. Not the one’s of the head-less variety, but rather of the Biblical sort. From Revelations. YUP. War, Death, Famine, and Pestilence. Those are the one’s from the story. And RIDERS by Veronica Rossi tells the story of War and the girl he loves, and the way the world falls apart.

Isn’t that an introduction?

I can honestly say that me favorite part about RIDERS is the description of the horses. They sound so freaking bad ass. I want them. The writing, as we can expect from Rossi’s previous fantastic series, is stellar. But, young readers, don’t go into RIDERS expecting Perry’s Berries or any of that. This publication isn’t like the other in any sense other than the writing style is similar. And I have to say, although I like it, I don’t love it.

Go ahead, cue the sad face.

The romance. I wasn’t feeling it. I wasn’t feeling any of the characters other than the horses, really, but I adore the plot. It’s really a building for the second (but I’m not telling you a thing. Can’t risk giving anything away, y’all.) book. Which, surprisingly, I didn’t hate. YAY. But the romance was an aspect of the story that was especially hard to get into. I mean, I don’t need to understand why they like each other, but I would like to know why they like each other. Through all the questioning and confusion, self-discovery, and general bad-assery I was surprised that the romance even existed.

The general progression of the story was told by War recounting events to a government official. OKAY. So, I love, love, LOVE this aspect of the book. It was something totally unique that I personally hadn’t seen before. I was totally digging it. Even if it was a little interrupt-y at times.

Overall, this book deserves 4 stars because of the plot and the individuality of the story. It was unique, and so not what I was expecting. But, that’s not really a bad thing- is it?

SO. Are you hard-core anticipating this book? Thank you TorTeen for giving me an eARC! I super duper really appreciate it.